Padgett Helps Cardinals Advance

Posted: Thu 11:14 PM, Mar 27, 2008

Tennessee's Wayne Chism tried to pick upthe loose ball, only to be quickly outnumbered. Louisville's EarlClark and Preston Knowles both dove to the floor, and the balldeflected off Chism out of bounds. It was what Rick Pitino loves: down and dirty defense, floorburns and hustle, and it's left the Cardinals' coach a victory awayfrom a sixth trip to the Final Four. Clark scored 17 points and had 12 rebounds, and Pitino's mix ofdefenses made life miserable for Tennessee in a 79-60 victoryThursday night that put third-seeded Louisville in the EastRegional final. Pitino, who has won an NCAA title and taken three schools to theFinal Four, has Louisville playing its best basketball of theseason when it counts most. After Louisville's two blowout winslast weekend, Pitino's signature zone and pressure limited thehigh-scoring Volunteers to 34-percent shooting. The veteran coachimproved to 8-0 in regional semifinals and secured a date withtop-seed North Carolina on Saturday night. "One of the keys on defense all year has been changing it up,"Pitino said. "When you give any good team a steady diet of onedefense, it's not quite as good. We extend our zone almost like ahalf-court trap, and we don't give the wings good looks." Terrence Williams and Andre McGee each added 13 points and DavidPadgett had 10 points and eight rebounds for Louisville (27-8),which nearly blew all of a 16-point first half lead, only to takecontrol midway through the second half. The Cardinals are vying fortheir second Final Four trip in six years under Pitino. He alsotook them there in 2005. "The last three games, our offense and our defense have bothbeen clicking," Pitino said. "There have been games where ouroffense has clicked or our defense has clicked, but our defense hasstayed constant most of the year." Chris Lofton scored 15 points for No. 2 seed Tennessee, but was3-for-15 in his final game with the Volunteers (31-5), who havenever advanced beyond the round of 16. After a horrible start, Tennessee got within 37-36 early in thesecond half thanks to its own defensive pressure, which forced 20turnovers. But then the springy Clark, who has come on in the NCAAtournament, had a driving layup, hit a baseline jumper andconverted a three-point play in a 13-5 run. Louisville's defense didn't allow Tennessee to get back in itagain, and the Cardinals hit all nine free throws over the final 5minutes to keep Tennessee at bay. "I've been coaching a long time and never has the tempo of thegame been dictated so much by an opponent," Tennessee coach BrucePearl said. "We usually dictate tempo. We attacked the pressureand we had opportunity to hurt the press, but we just didn'tfinish." JaJuan Smith added 12 point and Tyler Smith had 11, but theVolunteers continued their NCAA tournament shooting slump. Tennessee went 5-for-20 from 3-point range and finished11-for-58 in three games. It was another disappointing end forPearl, who has resurrected the program at Tennessee in his thirdseason, but hasn't been able to get the Vols into the round ofeight. The Volunteers, who were outrebounded 43-28, dropped to 0-5 inregional semifinals and finished with a school record for victoriesin a season. "This doesn't take much away from the finest season in thehistory of Tennessee basketball," Pearl said. "No team hasaccomplished the things these guys accomplished this year, and I'mawfully proud of them." Things couldn't have started much worse for the Volunteers.Chism picked up two fouls in the first 2 minutes and Louisville'sextended 2-3 zone bottled up Lofton, their leading scorer. When the Cardinals weren't turning it over, they were scoringoff easy baskets in transition. Pearl had called two timeouts bythe time Louisville took a 24-8 with 8:58 left. Tennessee got within seven at halftime, then cut the deficit toone early in the second half, despite getting little from Lofton. Lofton, who came in third in NCAA history with 429 3-pointers,saw a defender in his face every time he got the ball. He missedhis first seven 3-point attempts. Lofton was 2-for-11 from 3-point range, and could only watchLouisville celebrate in the final minute from the bench. "They wouldn't leave me," Lofton said. "It was tough to getmy shot off. They're a great defensive team." It left the Cardinals looking ahead to Saturday's game againstNorth Carolina, the toughest test yet for their vaunted defense.The Tar Heels will also be playing a virtual home game just overtwo hours from its Chapel Hill campus. The teams were set to meet in an early season tournament in LasVegas, but the Cardinals were upset by Brigham Young. This time Pitino and the Cardinals, who have won 12 of 14, are aconfident bunch thanks to their defense. "It's improved a lot over the course of the season," McGeesaid. "Coach has talked deny pressure, and trying to force stealsand turnovers. Today, as far as offense, we did a terrible job inthe first half - we had a lot of turnovers - but we handled theirpressure pretty good. We stepped it up in the second half."

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